The publisher of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft released a sunny financial report today, and revealed that Guitar Hero is big in Europe.

Activision Blizzard pulled in $981 million in revenue in the first quarter of this year ending March 31. That's up from the company's projected $860 million (which happens to be the revenue rival EA earned in its last quarter).

"Our better-than-expected first quarter results were driven by strong global consumer response to the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises and Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, despite challenging economic times," the company's CEO, Bobby Kotick, said in a statement.

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Kotick claims Activision as the #1 third-party console and handheld third-party publisher in North America and as the top third-party for the Wii worldwide.

Among the highlights for Activision Blizzard's quarter were Wrath of the Lich King maintaining the top spot on the PC charts according to NPD and Guitar Hero's sales rising by 84% year over year in Europe according to Charttrack and Gfk.

Activision is bullish on its next quarter, which will see the release of Transformers and Ice Age games along with Prototype, the already-released Wolverine game and new Guitar Hero titles (Smash Hits and Modern Hits, for consoles and DS, respectively.)